It seems that April has almost passed me by, and I haven’t posted anything. It isn’t that there hasn’t been anything happening. Au contraire, I don’t feel that I have stopped for breath. Being spring, the garden has taken plenty of work with my new raised veg patch needing to be planted out and of course, tended on an almost daily basis. I do not profess to being a gardener, and venturing into veggies is a new direction for me, but I am hopeful, and my gardening philosophy is that it has 2 chances; live or die! The weather hasn’t been too great, but we have had a lot of rain, which was very much needed after the dry months of February and March.

At the start of the month I made a short trip to my brother and sis-in-law in the UK. It’s always great to visit them and to catch up, eat and drink plenty, and to have a lot of laughs. There was the usual trip to the supermarket(s) to stock up on some favourites that are either very expensive here or just not available….well, it’s good to treat myself, isn’t it? Whilst I was there, Maggie had her first stay in the kennels here in France. I was the anxious dad, more worried about her than she was I’m sure. The lady said that she was really settled and interactive, no signs of distress, and seemd to just take it all in her stride. Of course, I was really pleased with her care and even more pleased to be reunited on my return.

I needed to go to a local village the day before yesterday, but somewhere I’d never been to and with all of the little lanes and backroads, I programmed it into my the car GPS. It turned out that it was only 10 mins away. But en route, the GPS stopped working and I was ‘lost’. As is so often the case, road signs were somewhat lacking, but I knew roughly the direction to take. Imagine my surprise when I turned a bend and came face-to-face with this chateau.

This is the Chateau deJouhé, in the village of Pioussay. Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to see much of it, but it was an unexpected sight sitting in the middle of nowhere, and yet only a few kms from home!

This picture is from the internet estate agent site

It is in private ownership. It is a classified building going back to the 1100’s. It seems that it was (not sure if it still is) for sale in March, so if you have just over 1.6 million euros going spare, it could be yours!

This pretty little church is in the village of Lorigné. I’m unable to find out anything about it, but at a guess, I’m thinking it’s Romanesque. I love coming across small places like this, and all thanks to my failed GPS! It’s amazing just what you can find on your own doorstep, isn’t it?